The grey, jagged corpse of the old village was gone. It hadn't just been repaired; it had been replaced by something that looked like it belonged to a civilization from a thousand years in the future. Golden-hued stone rose from the valley floor in strange, interlocking hexagons. The structures were stacked three stories high, forming a geometric mountain that seemed to pulse with the warmth of the sun.
It didn't look like it had been built by human hands—at least, not by the clumsy, haphazard methods of the current era. It looked like a massive, crystalline hive had grown naturally out of the earth itself. There were no crooked walls, no sagging beams and no gaps for the wind to whistle through. Every angle was a perfect lock, every surface smoothed to a dull, beautiful luster. The repeating skyline caught the afternoon light, making the entire valley glow with an ethereal, golden radiance.
